CNN —
For teams all across the nation, it all comes down to this: Selection Sunday is here.
Only 136 teams will get the opportunity to play in the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments that tip off next week, 68 in each bracket. It’s one of the signature events of the sporting calendar and the reason that March is just so, so mad.
The men’s bracket will be unveiled at 6 p.m. ET on CBS and the women’s bracket is revealed starting at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. But before the fields are announced and you can start recruiting coworkers to join your office bracket pool, there are still some games to be played.
Here are four things to watch on Selection Sunday:
Most of the conference tournaments wrapped up on Saturday night, but there are still nine tournaments – five on the men’s side, four on the women’s – that have their championship games on Sunday.
For the men, the Ivy League, Southeastern, Atlantic 10, American Athletic and Big 10 conferences all have their championship games in an action-packed early afternoon. The first game of the day tips off at noon ET between Cornell and Yale for the Ivy League crown, followed by Tennessee and Florida in the SEC and George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth University in the A-10 at 1 p.m. ET. The day wraps up with the University of Alabama-Birmingham taking on Memphis at 3 p.m. ET for the AAC championship and Wisconsin-Michigan at 3:30 p.m. ET for the Big Ten crown.
On the women’s side of things, most of the major conferences wrapped up their tournaments last week but four of the mid-majors take center stage on Sunday. At noon ET, Army plays Lehigh for the Patriot League championship and Stonehill plays Fairleigh Dickinson for the Northeast Conference championship. At 2 p.m. ET, William & Mary plays Campbell for the Coastal Athletic Association championship and Belmont plays Murray State for the Missouri Valley Conference championship.
It’s the uncertainty that makes this day special.
After months of games, some teams will be gathered together and waiting to see if they’re going dancing or being relegated to one of the sport’s consolation tournaments – the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), College Basketball Invitational (CBI) or the inaugural College Basketball Crown.
Life on the bubble is not easy and some teams didn’t do themselves any favors during their conference tournaments.
On the men’s side, Indiana will be hoping its up-and-down season can keep going with into The Big Dance. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s bracketology has the Hoosiers as one of the first four teams in while CBS’ Jerry Palm has Indiana as one of his last four teams in. The Hoosiers needed a win in the Big Ten tournament to bolster their resume but lost to Oregon in the opening contest.
Other teams to watch on the men’s side are Vanderbilt, San Diego State, Xavier, Boise State, Texas, Dayton, West Virginia, Wake Forest and North Carolina.
For the women, Iowa State, Washington, Columbia, Princeton, Virginia Tech, Boise State, St. Joseph’s, James Madison and UNLV are all bubble teams who are awaiting their fates, according to ESPN’s Charlie Creme.
The Tar Heels really could have used a win against archrivals Duke in the men’s ACC tournament on Saturday. In the worst way. Instead, they lost, in just about the worst way.
Jae-Lyn Withers’ costly mistake – a lane violation on a free throw that would have tied the game against Duke in the final seconds – ended up being the difference in the Tar Heels’ third loss to the top-ranked Blue Devils this year. Withers stepped into the lane as teammate Ven-Allen Lubin sunk a free throw that would have tied the game. Instead of tying the game at 72, the referees waved off the basket. The final score ended up 74-71.
Now the Tar Heels will be on the edge of their seat to see if they’re going back to the tournament. It’s an unusual place for one of the sport’s most successful programs to be, even if they were there not that long ago – the Tar Heels missed the tournament in 2023 before rebounding the following season to win the ACC and make a run to the Sweet 16.
UNC went 22-13 in the 2024-25 season, including 13-7 in the ACC. They won just one game against Quad 1 teams, teams placed in the top 25% of the NCAA Evaluation Tool that takes into account a number of different factors to rank teams. Down the stretch, UNC has lost 12 Quad 1 games in their last 13 contests, Palm noted. It’s not exactly a stellar relationship.
The deciding factor might have come on Saturday night when Colorado State beat Boise State in the Mountain West Conference championship game. The Broncos’ run to the conference championship game strengthened their resume to the point that they are both one of Lunardi and Palm’s last four teams in the tournament – and they might be taking UNC’s spot.
Three of the four top seeds in the men’s tournament, the crucial No. 1 teams who will have the smoothest path to the Final Four, appear set in stone at this point.
Auburn, which won the regular season championship in the SEC and finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press and coach’s rankings, seems like a lock to get one of the spots even though they lost to Tennessee in the semifinals of the SEC on Saturday. Houston won the Big 12 tournament championship on Saturday after wrapping up the regular season championship one week earlier. The Cougars are looking to win their schools first-ever national championship. And Duke, who won the ACC regular season championship, seems like a lock for another top spot after a 73-62 win over Louisville Saturday in the title game.
The one spot up in the air might be dependent on who wins the SEC championship game on Sunday afternoon. The winner of Florida vs. Tennessee might determine who gets that final top spot in the men’s tournament.
On the women’s side, the spots seem solid. ESPN’s Creme has the University of South Carolina, the University of Texas, University of Southern California, University of California-Los Angeles in the top spots. All those teams wrapped up their conference tournaments days ago.
